Grocery Challenge Days 4 and 5 - Getting Coupons

Saturday (Day 4) I bought 4 newspapers from CVS for $1.25 each and used $3 in ECBs, paid $2 out of pocket. I usually buy 4 weekend papers every week solely to get the coupon inserts out of them.

coupons!

I have found that 4 sets of coupons is the right number for my needs. I used to get more but I've found that I really don't need to pay for any more. Part of it is that I am not a reseller so I'm not out to buy a 100 of something just because it's on sale. Other reasons are that lots of coupons now have wording that says you can't use more than 2 or 4 of the same (like) coupon in the same transaction or the stores have policies that say you can't use more than 4 of the same coupon in the same transaction - so if you have 8 coupons for 8 items, you can only buy 4 at a time - and, past experience has told me that if you hand a cashier 10 of the same coupon sometimes they freak out... I prefer to fly under the radar.

Once I get my inserts, I file them by date...

When I need a coupon, I look it up on an online coupon database. There are many out there. I use the one at Hotcouponworld - http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/coupon.php - where I can put the name of the item in the search box and it will tell me if there is a coupon out for that item and, if so, what kind of coupon it is such as newspaper insert, internet printable (IP), etc. I find this much easier and less time consuming then cutting out all the coupons which you may or may not use then sorting through them. Once I find the coupon, I can simply pull the insert and cut just the coupon I need.

If there is a crazy good coupon out there that I absolutely have to have multiples of, I will order them from a clipping service. Again, there are many out there. I use www.thecouponclippers.com. They are called clipping services because they are charging you a service fee to clip the coupon. Legally you cannot sell a coupon.

I'd say over half the coupons I use these days are internet printables. The most common sites are coupons.com, smartsource.com, redplum.com, and hopster.com. You have to download a coupon printer from each of these websites. Most will let you print two prints of each coupon per machine. We have three laptops and a desktop computer so that means I can potentially print 8 of the same coupon if I wanted. By same, I mean same item coupon. Each coupon prints with a unique ID. You cannot copy coupons. Many manufacturer's websites or their Facebook pages will also offer coupons.

The other source of coupons are the stores themselves. This is where you can find deals on stuff that you otherwise would not have a coupon for such as meat, milk, and produce. I have customer loyalty cards to every store I shop and take advantage of both their digital and paper coupons. For instance, this is what I have available (digitally) on my Marsh card right now...

These are some of the paper coupons Market District sent me...

It's all stuff that typically will not show up as a manufacturer's coupon.

So yesterday I bought 4 newspapers. That was all.

I stayed out of the grocery store today as well. I found the last of last summer's blueberries in the freezer and made a pie. Some seasonal produce is worth freezing, blueberries being one of them. I am waiting for them to get down to $0.99/pint and then I'm going to stock up. I have paid as much as $4.99 for 6 oz of blueberries in the winter when I "needed" them.

my family's favorite pie

Also baked a batch of coconut chocolate chip cookies.

Total out of pocket spending so far this month: $57.95.